Sandy's Café

A (sorta) breakfastary roadtrip:
Gilroy, CA

(No official-type web-site.)


Place: Sandy's Café

Location: 6120 Monterey Street, Gilroy, CA; 
phonicular contact: (408) 848-1200

Hours: open at 6:00am every day of the week

Meal: (me) Ortega Chili[1] and Cheese Omelet ~ chopped Ortega chilies, Jack cheese, black olives, sour cream, topped with salsa ~ omelets made with 
(4) eggs and served with hash browns or fruit and choice of toast or (1) pancake; (Dave) Biscuits & Gravy Combo ~ 2 eggs with choice of 2 bacon or sausage; (Patryce) Vegetarian Omelet ~ spinach, mushroom, asparagus, and topped with cheese; 
to drink: (me) a large glassa orange juice; (Dave) a glassa (and one free refilla) Coke® (or, perhaps, seeing as this is a Greek family owned diner/restaurant/café ~ "No Coke®! pepsi®!"); and (Patryce) a cuppa (and one refilla) the house/diner/restaurant/café Coffee

(Yeah, I coulda probably went with Rick Springsteen's classic "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)", but this was the day after a completely different truly-'merican holiday and I figured this EweToobular juxtaselection would fit better.)


So, what does one do the morning after a large Thanksgiving Day dinner? Go out for another large meal, of course. 

Technically, seeing as I was already still in Gilroy-town from yesterday's Thanksgiving Holiday, this was not really a Breakfastary Roadtrip (which would actually have entailed an 166 miles round-trip to do so, otherwise), but I went back to Sandy's Café 
(see last 'blog-entry from Friday, November 27th, 2015) for breakfast this morning. This was the fourth time now that I have eaten at Sandy's Café (well, for my first visit there, they were still operating under the old nefarious name of "Sunrise Cafe").

I really like this little family-owned/operated diner-joint. The people working there were super friendly and helpful (even the day-after Thanksgiving, when most people have already warn-out their fake cheeriness/thankfulness). If I lived in the area, I could easily see this place being Breakfastary Starting Rotation-worthy.

They have a very good list of items from which to choose for breakfast. Here are a few other good ideas yet:

Feta Omelet ~ they do not list the ingredients for this one on the menu, I think it has some kinda cheese in it, though;

Chef's Favorite Omelet ~ tomato, onion, bell pepper, mushroom, sausage (which I would have ογδόντα έξι-ed, of course), Feta cheese (this one would be my choice next time... on Friday, November 22nd, 2019?);

Maserati Omelet ~ sausage, mushroom, Jack and 'merican cheese, covered with Italian meat sauce, sprinkled with Parmesan cheese (I really tried talking either Dave or Patryce into getting this one; there really is no point in trying to vegetarian-ize this meal, without the Italian sauce, it would just be a mushroom and cheese omelette);

Aloha Omelet ~ pineapple, Canadian bacon, and topped with Swiss and 'merican cheese (this is another one that would not translate very well to being vegetarian-ized);

or

Banana French Toast (this was a special listed on a sign/blackboard at the front door that I had completely missed until just when we were leaving; if I had seen it upon entering, I would definitely have gone with that choice ~ probably with a side of potatoes, too).

(I did not want to bother my other two dining mates by taking photos of their plates this morning.)


This was a simple enough omelette, and simply enough HUGE. (Did I mention that they use four eggs in their omelettes?) The black olives inside the omelette were just your boring ol' canned, sliced variety. Even so, I still liked my omelette well enough, the amount of Ortega chillies in it more than made up for the innate blandness of the black olives (but I think they forgot to add any salsa on top, which may have been worth another 0.1 to 0.2 points on the Glen Bacon Scale). 

However, Patryce did not seem as quite enamoured of her omelette. She did not like how the cheese is presented melted on top and not inside the omelette itself. She did like that it was made with asparagus (which is her favourite vegetable ~ as it is mine, too), but felt it had a bit more spinach than asparagus ratio.

I really like that Sandy's Café offers both hashbrowns or homefries as a potatoey side-choice. 
I went with the homefries (Patryce, too) and this turned out to be a very wise choice because their version of homefries was extremely tasty. The potatoes were cut into nice half-inch squares with lots of green bell peppers and white onions in the mix, and all of these were charred perfectly to my liking (read: a bit on the crispy-crunchy side).

I opted for a pancake (Patryce, too) instead of plain ol' toast ~ even I know how to push down the d*mn lever on a bread-toaster-thing.

Now, Dave's dish was all pretty simple, too, but I was very impressed how it was presented with the two eggs (which I think he ordered over-medium) already on top of the biscuit(s?) as if it were some kinda Southern Fried Eggs Benedict, y'all. As I have been of the stupid vegetarian ilk for many years now, I don't think that I have ever had biscuits with country gravy; as best as I can figure, these are normally made with either a porky-sausage base or sometimes with grinded-up dead, decaying bovine meat. And, not that it really matters much to me (but just for the sake of the whole 'blog-integrity), Dave went with the two strips of bacon choice.

Sandy's Café has both Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce) and Tapatío® Salsa Picante Hot Sauce for use as condimentary supplementation. I tried something a bit different this morning and went with a base layer of A.1. Original Sauce® on top of the homefries then added some Tapatío® on top of that, too.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Ortega Chili and Cheese Omelet ~ 6.4 (this is factoring in their extremely good side of homefries);
Vegetarian Omelet ~ 6.0 (per Patryce's rating, after I had educated her on the intricacies of the highly-technical Glen Bacon Scale);
Biscuits & Gravy Combo ~ 6.6 (I forgot what Dave said about his dish, but I am giving this rating based on the coolness of the Southern-style Eggs Benedict presentation)

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1. Also known as an Anaheim chilli. It is a mild variety of the cultivar "New Mexico No. 9". The name "Anaheim" derives from Emilio Ortega, a farmer who brought the seeds from New Mexico to the Anaheim, California, area in 1894. They are also called "California chilli" or "Magdalena", and dried they are known as chile seco del norte. Often it is used for Chile Relleno. When mature, it takes on a red colour and is referred to as a Colorado.

The chilli "heat" of Anaheim varies from 500 to 2,500 on the Scoville scale; however, typical cultivars grown in New Mexico can selectively and uniformly range from 500 to 10,000 Scoville units.

http://chilefacts.nmsu.edu/